Development and the evolvability of human limbs

The long legs and short arms of humans are distinctive for a primate, the result of selection acting in opposite directions on each limb at different points in our evolutionary history. This mosaic pattern challenges our understanding of the relationship of development and evolvability because limbs...

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Published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 107; no. 8; pp. 3400 - 3405
Main Authors Young, Nathan M, Wagner, Günter P, Hallgrímsson, Benedikt
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States National Academy of Sciences 23.02.2010
National Acad Sciences
Subjects
Animals
Apes
Arm - anatomy & histology
Arm - growth & development
Biological Evolution
Biological Sciences
Bone Development - genetics
Comparative studies
Correlations
Evolution
Evolutionary genetics
Extremities - growth & development
Fossils
genetic correlation
Genetic Variation
Haplorhini - genetics
Haplorhini - growth & development
Hominidae
Hominidae - genetics
Hominidae - growth & development
Human subjects
Humans
Leg - anatomy & histology
Leg - growth & development
legs
life cycle assessment
Macroevolution
Monkeys
Monkeys & apes
Paleobiology
pleiotropy
Pongidae
Primates
Quantitative genetics
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Summary:The long legs and short arms of humans are distinctive for a primate, the result of selection acting in opposite directions on each limb at different points in our evolutionary history. This mosaic pattern challenges our understanding of the relationship of development and evolvability because limbs are serially homologous and genetic correlations should act as a significant constraint on their independent evolution. Here we test a developmental model of limb covariation in anthropoid primates and demonstrate that both humans and apes exhibit significantly reduced integration between limbs when compared to quadrupedal monkeys. This result indicates that fossil hominins likely escaped constraints on independent limb variation via reductions to genetic pleiotropy in an ape-like last common ancestor (LCA). This critical change in integration among hominoids, which is reflected in macroevolutionary differences in the disparity between limb lengths, facilitated selection for modern human limb proportions and demonstrates how development helps shape evolutionary change.
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Edited* by David Pilbeam, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved December 29, 2009 (received for review October 14, 2009)
This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.
Author contributions: N.M.Y. designed research; N.M.Y. performed research; N.M.Y. and B.H. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; N.M.Y., G.W., and B.H. analyzed data; and N.M.Y., G.W., and B.H. wrote the paper.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0911856107